White and Black  A Hollow's World
by Meko123
Summary: Lizardwing, a lonely hollow finds a small ghost in Hueco Mundo, and out of boredom, decides to adopt for a short while, and try to bring the kid to the soul society...note the word tries.Please review.
1. A Chanced Meeting

A girl stood at the cross roads, her small hands clutching a necklace. Wind whipped her black hair back, and chased the tendrils away from her deep blue eyes. Three tears fell, in quick succession, down her round child like face. She didn't move for a moment, letting her gaze fall on a small rock in the middle of the road. It was there that she shuffled to, and sat down.

Time passed. The girl became like the rock, waiting with a mournful, patient gaze. Her surroundings never changed. It was a perpetual darkness that shrouded a world full of white. Bone white trees. Bone white sand. White lizards with white masks basked in a white moons glare. She was the only sense of color against the background. A flash of bright blue, in a sea of black and white. Her skin was pale against the wash of the backwords moon, her black hair darker with the tone of the sky, her white dress giving the child a washed out appearance. It was only her big blue eyes that brought color into the dark and dank world around her. Eyes that were now slowly closing, in the process of sleep. A little yawn, a stretch of arms, and curling up on the cold rock face. She sighed, and looked out again in half closed eyes at her horizon, as if what was meant to come would come now. But it didn't, so she closed them, and fell into slumber.

Lizardwing wasn't the happiest person in existence. In fact, he was a miserable person. But there was a pride in this misery that he couldn't quite understand. He was a hollow. A partially strong one. One that disserve respect.

"That's why I'm so miserable. I get too much respect." He thought. There was nothing around him that wanted to have fun. They respected him to much to have fun with him. Any hollow that was respected was challenged to a fight. But, then again, all they ever did was fight. So why was it that he could think of a hundred things a lot more fun than fighting? Of course, after those a hundred things were done, he would have to admit that fighting did have a certain excitement in life. Or could he live in peace? Would that be just as exciting? He stopped in mid stride to think about such a perplexing question.

"It's like one of those questions of life that never are answered unless people started to like each other…can they do that? Why don't they fight with those plastic swords? You could solve so many problems with those things…" He started to ponder this unusual thought as he took up his stride again. So many things to think about. So little people to think with. How disappointing. His meandering through life was getting tiresome, but at this point, it would make sense. He was six thousand and fifty five.

"Six thousand and fifty four. Get it right." …sorry. Six thousand and fifty four. He was old. Too old. Too old to be like all the young hollows, going around eating anytime they pleased. Or eating anything they pleased. He was different. Even from the beginning…not that he could remember it that well. He ate toothpicks. A lot of them. At least he called them tooth picks. They were in relation to his size, but in reality, he ate the trees that grew in the menos forest. A true vegetarian. The reason. He was too lazy to get humans. Or hollows. Plus, he always ended up talking to them rather than eating them. There is nothing more unpleasant than eating a new found friend. So he was content to munch on trees. It really didn't do much but fill his stomach, but who was he to complain? True, it was an odd practice as an hollow, and one that he didn't really enjoy. But his stomach was grumbling, and with no alternate food source, he headed off to his feeding grounds. He had to trot all the way across the desert landscape, to get to the small little opening that held the best trees that he liked. There was even a little path that he had made over the years, which led the way.

"Such a nice path." He crooned to himself. He was proud of it. One of the few things he could be proud of in fact... except for all the socks that he had managed to collect over the years. You know that lost sock that you were always looking for? Well, now you know. As he trotted down his "little" foot path, which could have doubled as a road for large machinery, he noticed something odd. Way down, all the way down to the ground, was a child. A human child. A human ghost child.

The child craned her neck, trying to find the face of the monster before her. He was huge. The size of a two story building in height alone. Her wide eyed gaze stared back at the masked being in front of her.

"The dragon…" She mouthed in amazement. For that was what he looked like. A white dragon. White, like everything in this darn country. The dragon cocked its head, ruffled its wings, and with a grunt, sat down on the ground. The boom hurt the girl's ears, but the dragon didn't seem to notice.

"Don't tell me…you're lost right?" The dragon finally said after a long awkward silence. The girl shook her head.

"You're not lost? Then what are you?" The dragon stretched one of its wings lazily.

"I'm here. If I'm here, I'm not lost. I'm here." The girl's small voice said. Surprisingly, the dragon seemed to have heard her small quivering voice over the unforgiving wind.

"That is an excellent point. Good logic. Good word usage. Do you have some time on your hands to spare?" The girl cocked her head, and then looked behind her, at the forever stretching horizon.

"Yes." Was her reply.

"Do you have a name?" The dragon enquired.

"No." the girl looked away, staring at her bare feet.

"Then you'll be named giggles." He said promptly.

"Giggles? That's a silly name." The girl grinned.

"Exactly. There should be silly things in life. For instance, my name. It's Lizardwing." He said sarcasm thick in his voice. What do you mean it's silly he thought to himself, it's wonderful! But the girl didn't seem to agree. The girl started to laugh. Lizardwing sifted uncomfortably. He realized that he was one of the most powerful hollows, and currently, he was being laughed at by a human ghost child. Laughing at his incredible name. That was insulting. So he told her.

"I was being sarcastic. Don't insult me." He glowered. The child stopped with a wide grin on her face.

"It don't make it less funny!" She said in between giggles.

"It's a serious name! Both of them!" He protested. He liked the name giggles; he thought it sounded like a fun, but nice name. Could be shortened to Gig, which could sound cool. There was nothing wrong with it to his knowledge. And Lizardwing! That was a glorious name that struck fear into every hollows heart. The sound of a true dragon among the little people. The girl was shaking her head, obviously disagreeing.

"Lizardwing sounds like a fake dragon!" She giggled.

"That's not true! Besides, why is that funny?" He exclaimed.

"It isn't!"She yelled in-between gasps of hysteria. It was at this point that Lizardwing believed the child to be insane. He was most likely right. But she was also very true in the fact that none of this was very funny. She just happened to like laughing. Too much. It made her look like an idiot. Lizardwing had to agree, and being the blunt miserable hollow he was, he proceeded to tell her.

"You are an idiot." He said, "Giggles suites you." With that he stomped away, very much offended.

Within seconds of his stomping, he came upon the hole that required him to transform. Lizardwing had to sift his size to a smaller version of himself before he could even hope to get through any hole. In doing so, he also made himself faster, and but less powerful. But he was too annoyed to even think about doing that. He was so annoyed that he wanted to eat a really big fish. He hated fish. Loved toast. Only got it when he went to the real world. Stole it from random people, along with socks…wouldn't steal any fish though. But he would now…

"I am just that annoyed!" He bellowed. He sighed, and tried to think about toast. It didn't work. All he could see was that kid, laughing. He got so frustrated he rammed into the hole. It didn't work. So he tried to transform…didn't work. Fish…

"The only way I'm going to do this is if I calm down." He went through his calming exercises. First, he counted to ten. Then he counted to ten again. He found that this annoyed him more than calmed him, so Lizardwing did something else. He imagined each number; and got rid of it in not so nice ways. Some of them I won't describe due to graphic violence. Some of the few happened to get pelted with oranges, and one was shot to the moon in a fish. By the end of it he was humming happily, and significantly smaller. Now about the size of a panther. He proceeded to wiggle through the hole in front of him, and would have to. If it wasn't for the small hand that grabbed his tail. Hard.

No one. No one dared to do stuff like this to him. In all of his six thousand and fifty five

"Four!" sorry…four years had anyone had the gall to laugh at him, and now, she was tugging his tail. His tail! He felt that annoyance rise again, and no images of oranges or fish rockets to the moon could help him now. He spun around, eyes glaring at the girl. He would have snapped her head off, if it wasn't for her expression. It was sad. It was dreadful. It was pathetic. It was a puppy-eyed look.

"Don't leave me." She said a little catch in her throat. He growled, trying to show her that she had no control over him. But as he stared into her blue eyes, he saw it. That same puppy eyed look. There was no hope. With a sigh, he bent his head in surrender. She won.

"Very well. But you have to keep up." He said, trying to snarl at her. Failing miserably. He couldn't snarl at a girl with such a teary eyed look. With a sigh, he turned back to the passage, and wriggled through. With an undignified plop, he landed on a small rock cliff. The sky was shut out; he was now completely surrounded by rock trees, rock walls, and rock ceilings.

"Rocky…" He said, snorting at his own joke. To his surprise, he heard Giggles laughing to. No one laughed at his jokes. Mainly because they were bad. And there was no one there to laugh at them. He felt an inkling of pride. He was funny. She laughed, which means I'm funny he thought to himself, his chest puffing up slightly. If he could have smirked, he would have. Giggles was now on the landing with him, staring over the cliffs edge, down to the forest floor.

"It's a long way down isn't it?" She asked apprehensively. Lizardwing looked down, and considered it. He had never considered heights an issue. It may be because of the wings folded neatly across his back.

"Guess so…" He said, "Your not afraid of heights are you?" The girl shook her head. With a sigh of relief he turned to her with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Good, because if you didn't, you wouldn't like this at all." And with that said, he scooped her up in his front paws, and leapt into the air.

With a snap, his wings opened up. He had his landing gear tucked neatly underneath him, and a screaming child making him slightly top heavy below him. Lizardwing really hoped that the child was screaming in delight, not fright, because he wouldn't like to traumatize the child that much. Maybe just a little. But the giggles that followed the screams told him that she wasn't scared.

"Idiot." He said under his breath. Any normal ghost should be scared. Why wasn't this child scared? In fact, there were a lot of things that didn't make sense to him. In all his years, he had never seen a plus ghost grace the prescience of Hueco Mundo. Why was she here right now? And why hadn't she been eaten already? She should have. And if not, then she should be in the soul society, where her kind belonged. In fact, there really should be no way for her to even reach here. Unless she was dragged in by a hollow. But if that was the case, she would be dead. Maybe she was cleverly disguised hollow. He peeked down at the child in his claws. She was currently holding her arms out, pretending to fly. Cute. And there was her chain, fluttering in the wind. Nope. Certainly a plus ghost. Hum… Certainly a mystery. He wheeled around, searching for the right tree. He made his way for the one on the right, with a large branch already half eaten. Not the tastiest of the trees, but he was saving the gourmet ones for later. For his birthday celebration.

"Not that it has ever been fun…" He moaned to himself, falling back into his same self pity.

"What's never been fun?" Came the child's voice from underneath him. Lizardwing stopped short for a second. That's right! Someone was listening to him! Not only that, but wanted to talk to him! Who cared how odd this child was, she was company! And now he could complain all he wanted to, and still have someone to listen to his ramblings about life! With a sense of smugness he decided he was going to have…a conversation.

"My birthday. I'm going to turn six thousand and fifty five this year." He said, smugness emanating from him.

"I bet you that you'll never be that old." He continued to say, the smugness going to a whole other level.

"No…but I'm going to be turning six! …or at least I was…before I died…" She said sadly.

"Ahh." He said sympathetically. There was a vague speech about death that he remembered hearing…maybe it would make her as miserable as himself. That would be nice. They could complain together.

"Life is nothing but a stage my small little friend. Each person has an exit and an entrance, and one little girl, in her time, will play many parts.

"Many parts?"

"Yes. About seven." He said after a pause in thought.

"Why seven?" Giggles asked with faint hint of interest in her voice.

"Well…First, there's the infant, mulling and puking in the nurses arms…then the whining school girl, with satchel and shining morning face creeping like snail unwilling to school."

"I never did any of those things!" Giggles protested.

"But you may have. But I'm not done yet. These are the stages you missed. There is the lover, who sighs like a furnace, making woeful ballade to her mister's eyebrows."

"Why eye brow?"She asked in disgust.

"Don't ask me! A depressed man like myself said this! Now do you want to know the rest of it or not?" He demanded.

"No." came the curt reply.

"Doesn't matter, I'm telling you anyway. Where was I? …oh yes…then the solder, bearded like a leopard, full of strange oaths, jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel! Then the judge, with full round belly and good capon lined, a beard of formal cut, full of wise saw and modern instances…and so he plays his part."

"This makes no sense." She quipped.

"Shut up. This is the good part. This is the part that you get to miss entirely!" He cleared his throat in ready anticipation, and continued,

"The sixth scene slips into a lean and slipper pantaloon, with…" He would have said more, but she interrupted him,

"What are pantaloons?" Lizardwing thought about it for a moment, and all he could see was…nothing…just inky blackness. And a fish. Odd. He tried to answer her question anyway.

"…I don't know…maybe a fish…who cares! Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah! …with spectacles on eyes, and pouch on side, her youthful hose well saved a world to wide for her shrunk shank…"

"I didn't understand half of those words." She interrupted him again. But each interruption brought a good point.

"Funny, neither did I. They probably aren't important anyway. Here's the last part, the part that you did get to do. The part that really sucks. Listen close!" He said, his drawl containing all the excitement that he could contain.

"Last scene of all, that ends this strange oblivion, sans teeth, sans taste, sans eyes, sans everything…I love that part!"

"What does it mean?"

"That you die." He said curtly.

"Oh. That's depressing!"

"I know! Don't you love it?"

"No." She said, her voice more annoyed than depressed. He tried to get a good reaction.

"Did what I say make any sense?"

"No." Then he tried to prompt her.

"You want to know why?"

"No." He didn't care. He told her anyway.

"Growing up doesn't make any sense either. It a play about growing up made sense, it would be contradictory, wouldn't it now? Now get ready. I'm going to land. It'll jolt you a bit." The girl scrunched herself up, Lizardwing knowing that it was completely pointless for her to do this. With his back legs, his landing gear, he grabbed onto the thick branch, bending in precariously as he landed. The girl swung around in his claws, her dress flying all over the place.

"Well, we're here." He stated the obvious. He placed Giggles gently onto the branch, and carefully made his way to the area he was chewing before he had met her. Hunkering down, he began to chow down on his meal. The girl sat there, watching him try and chew a piece of the white tree rock. After a while, she grew board of him, and started playing with her pendent. She tried to get it to glint with the little bit of light in the area. There wasn't much, so it made it more of a challenge. Lizardwing didn't mind, because at least it kept her occupied. Besides, he liked the company much more than he like being alone. That may have made him an odd hollow, but it also made him a happy one. Almost all hollows are unhappy. Except the ones with DVD players. And those are few and far in between. There is nothing more fascinating than a DVD player for a hollow. It takes a disk, and you put it in, and then you see pictures. They move. And make sound. So cool. Hollows, even the newer ones found it amazing, and it wasn't because that they were never introduced to one, but because all hollows are fundamentally dumb in all things concerning everything. Except fighting. They're good at that. Except Lizardwing. He was exceptional. It was Lizardwing that thought Giggles should know this. So he told her.

"I'm exceptional at fighting." He proclaimed. Unfortunately this made very little impact on Giggles. Due to the lack of reaction, Lizardwing couldn't help but feel confused. All hollows loved to fight. It was just like all Canadians love hockey. It was a rule. If you didn't like it, you were shunned. All Hollows fight. It was a rule. If you didn't like it, you were shunned. Wasn't it the same down in the real world?

"I hate fighting." Giggles stated, while still fiddling with her necklace.

"…oh." Lizardwing chewed on a particular hard spot on the branch. Guess he was wrong. Maybe that wouldn't impress her. She didn't like to fight. Should he shun her? As he thought about it, Lizardwing couldn't help but feel something warm deep inside him when he thought of what she said. She didn't like to fight. Maybe, in some deep…very deep…and hidden with a pad lock and laser beams, with five guard dog….maybe he was like her. He didn't like to fight either.

"But what if that's all you can do?" He asked with an uncertainty that colored his voice. When had he ever felt uncertain? This was ridiculous. But he still waited for her answer like that small locked part of him depended on it. Maybe it did. She sure was taking her precious time to answer it though. She twirled her necklace a few more times before answering.

"Then you'll have to put up with it. Just don't love it." Huh…really. That was her answer. He bit down a little harder than he anticipated on his next mouthful. A crack rippled through the air.

"That's not a good answer." He said between mouthfuls. Giggles didn't seem to care. She was too mesmerized with what she saw in her pendent for some reason. He watched her, crunching his bone hard tree limbs in his mouth.

"Nice pendent." He said, for lack of better dinner conversation. She grinned.

"Someone gave it to me. I don't remember who though. They said that if I broke it, I would find a power that could save me from danger. But if I broke it, I would be breaking something very precious. So I just play with it. I don't want to break it. I'm not in danger anyway. I don't want to break something that's precious." And the way she looked at it, it must have been. Such a happy smile. Something occurred to Lizardwing as he chomped on another mouthful of "food".

"Weren't you in danger the moment you came here? It's a dangerous world down here. Not a place for something like you."

"I was not in danger!" She said indignantly, "I was brought here by some nice mask people. They called themselves hollows! They said that they were going to take me to dinner. And I've been hungry for a while. So I went with them. But…as soon as I came here…they ran away. They said the dragon is coming. They ran away so fast, that I couldn't keep up with them, so I ended up waiting for the dragon. And here you are!" She said with her smile bright.

"And why on earth would you want to see me? The hollows you thought were your "friends" ran away from me! Why did you go with them at all? Don't you know what hollows do to ghosts like you?" He half bellowed. The girl shook her head, eyes slightly wide with fear.

"I died around three hours ago. I don't know much at all." She said sadly.

"And you hungry already?" He exclaimed, staring at her in a altogether new way, like he was seeing her for the first time.

"I shouldn't be?" Her eyebrows drew together as she asked the question.

"No! Ghosts don't need food for weeks, sometimes years on end! You should not want food at all. That's a bad sign." He darkly stated.

"Why, what does it mean?" She asked apprehensively.

"It means you're becoming one of us." He said, a shadow cloaking his voice. The girl clutched her pendent closer to her, staring up at him with trembling eyes. She touched her face lightly, feeling it as though the mask was already there.

"I don't want to be masked like that." She whispered.

"None of us did. It's a choice that none of the hollows make, but our bodies." Lizardwing shuttered, thinking back to his own transformation, all those years ago.

"What do I do?" She whispered.

"You follow me. We're going to get you and that pendent thing to safety. This is not a place for a ghost like you. Hollows will and can eat you. You're just lucky that I'm not one of them…in fact come to think of it, I 'm the only one that doesn't eat humans…I wonder why? I think that's why I'm so miserable…" He trailed off, pondering again his former question before he came upon the kid.

"Hollow eat ghosts!" The child gasped, snapping Lizardwing out of his thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Which is why you're going to stick around me ok?" Giggles nodded vigorously. With a satisfied nod, Lizardwing took one last crunch of tree, and got up.

"Ready?" He asked. Giggles nodded and held her pendent in a closed fist. He rose up on his hind legs, grabbed Giggles, and launched himself into the air. Now he had committed himself to helping her. He didn't know why. He didn't know how. But he knew for some idiotic reason, he was going to help her. Maybe it was because he wanted to do something constructive for a change. He had asked her about fighting, but what if he was wrong. What if fighting wasn't the only thing he could do. What if he could save to? It would be nice to see the flip side of the coin for once. Why not? Why not let this girl show him what she means.

As they flew, he thought about complications, questions, any bits of information that would be helpful to his quest. That's what he was calling this now. A quest. A quest sounded like fun. A chore did not. Plus, it made him sound epic in a non-stupid kind of way. At least he thought so. But from what Gig had told him, there were a lot of things that were slightly silly about him. Like his feet.

"I'll have you know, that I like my feet very much. There is absolutely nothing wrong with them." He muttered.

"But they're so skinny! Skinny feet! Skinny feet!" She laughed and clapped. He considered dropping her with his "skinny feet."

"I'll have you know that these skinny feet have the power to rip these trees in half." Giggles looked up at him, wonderment and laughter in her eyes. He couldn't help but feel a little envious. His face couldn't be that expressive, it was covered by a big ol' mask. She'll never be able to tell when he gave on of his extremely rare smiles, or well known frowns…she also wouldn't know when he stuck out his tongue… he found out that he was doing that a lot more lately…maybe it was for the best that she couldn't see his face…

"Your feet are so skinny, they look like a branch!" Giggles exclaimed. Lizardwing rolled his eyes. She couldn't see that, which was fine with him. Instead of thinking of a comeback to such a childish comment, he came up with a ten second plan.

"I'll going to tell you what we are going to do." He said, trying to draw attention away from his feet to the moment at hand. Hand, not feet. He snickered.

"What we are going to do is we are going to go to the real world first. That's where you sort of belong. Then we are going to find a way to soul society. We have to get this done before you turn into a hollow, which, but the size of your appetite, is going to be around one week. Kapeesh?" The child nodded to Lizardwing direct words.

"Any questions?" He asked mater of factly. Giggles shook her head.

"Good! Then, let's be going!..." he paused, looking around for a second. Then looked above him. Below. One side…other side…behind him…in front of him…hum…

"Gig?" He asked, confusion in his voice.

"Yes?" She replied.

"Where is the real world?" Gig sighed. What had they gotten themselves into?


	2. We are not Lost

We're not lost. I mean, it's not like being lost isn't bad… it's ok. Being lost is normal. You can get lost in thought, lost in a maze… there's even a show called Lost! …normal right? Right? How about losing your page, losing your mind, losing the plot in the second chapter, losing your characters in a random dust storm that you didn't plan on entering the story in till chapter twenty seven…? Oh dear. We're lost.


	3. Soup and Toast

Giggles curled up, shivering slightly from the gusts of wind the screamed through the valley. Lizardwing had took them back up to the surface of Hueco Mundo, and then…got lost. Much to his disappointment, frustration, and embarrassment, he got lost.

"I've lived her for six thousand and fifty four years, and I get lost. I'm losing it! I'm finally losing it. First it's my mind, then it'll be my toes, then my joints will start aching, and after that, I won't be able to see, or hear anything, and I'll walk around looking like some…old thing! I'm old!" He moaned, lamenting his sorrows to a shivering child on the ground. It didn't seem like she cared much. But at least it was someone who generally listened. At least he hoped so. Giggles drew her arms around herself, trying to shield herself from the wind. Lizardwing couldn't help but feel sorry as he saw the tremors that wracked through her. With a sigh, he settled himself down next to her. Wrapping a large white wing around her, he drew her next to his scaly body. At least he was warm, even if he was old. Old, like 80's style. And 80's music. Hair too…But at least their socks were funky. Groovy man. He sighed. Looking about the sandstorm raging around them, it looked like they were going to stay lost for a while. So, doing the only thing they could do, they fell asleep, curled next to each other for warmth. One of those cute moments that never is scene. Lizardwing preferred it that way.

The sand storms in Hueco Mundo were completely different than snow storms up in Canada. Because, snowstorms are cold, they happen to last no more than a day, and let's face it, if you live in Calgary, they're pretty wimpy. Just part of the everyday weather in Calgary, Alberta. You could get any type of weather in Calgary. Except sand storms. We haven't had that yet. Waiting for it though. It's Calgary, anything happens. Including wimpy snow storms. Sand storms on the other hand are intense, mind blowing experiences, which, if you don't want to have your mind blown, you wouldn't want to see. The sand storms in Hueco Mundo… well, they're just plain scary. The wind whips by so fast; it feels like you could take off into the sky, without the help of your neighborhood umbrella. And the sand that swirled around in the air, well, it feels like some crazy psycho giant is sanding your skin down to the bone. The wind is so strong, it picks up pebble size rocks, as well as the occasional bolder, and sent them flying like cows in Kansas. Good times, good times. Luckily, the wildlife in Hueco Mundo was used to such treatment. Plus, they all had convenient hard skin that could deal with this. Humans do not. Giggles did not. She was miserable. But at least she had Lizardwing to shelter her. Ichigo on the other hand, did not. But that was fine, because he was tromping around in Las Noches. They didn't get sand storms there. Lucky idiots.

Aizen didn't seem to know what to do at the moment. In fact, he seemed so unsure about what to do, he was doing nothing. A meeting, or rather, the meeting had taken place only five minutes ago. He had told his army of the intruders, set up the plans, and made a good cup of tea. Everything was in place…so now what? With a sigh, he looked at the ceiling. For all the patience he boasted of having, this was the part that he hated. Twirling his spoon uselessly in his tea, he looked up to see Gin enter the room. Straighten up. Look lordly. Think Kuchiki, but more annoying. Right.

"My lord, he's finally broken through into Las Noches."Gin said; his ever present smirk on his face. Just once, Azien wanted to see that smile turned upside down. And as Gin looked at Azien, he couldn't help but feel like Aizen's own continuous cool smile irked him more than usual. Gin would give anything to see Aizen's smile turned upside down. Feel the friendship blooming in the room? Two smiling idiots staring at each other, each trying to out smile the other in his own annoying way.

"I see. This should be interesting. Greet them properly." Azien said, cool as a cucumber. In fact, some would say cooler than a cucumber. He was as cool as a guy with a cup of tea and ultimate power could be. So cool, a mullet looked good on him. He was that cool. There was no cucumber in the whole world that could beat that.

"Yes my lord." Gin said. He gave a curt bow, and strode out of the room, his ever present grin gaining more facial space than necessary for the human skull.

Dirk was sick. Really sick. Sniffles and wheezing and hacking and coughing and spiting and gritting and moaning and groaning and…he was sick. But under the current circumstance, he was not allowed to leave his post.

"Look out for the intruders. If you see them, kill them." Was the order, orders he was very well going to keep if he wanted to keep his life. Then again, maybe he would pass out from the fever first…He was an excuse of a hollow, a grim image of the greatness they could achieve. Not a day passed when he wasn't reminded of this, and not a day passed when he was grateful for that fact. The reason simply being that a whimsy hollow is an overlooked hollow. He job was to clean all the tea cups that passed trough the fort, as well as make the tea, and other food required. He was a good cook. If calmed him. Even now, as some spittle from his last sneeze plopped into his soup, he knew that it would taste good. The bowl always came back empty, so it was a natural assumption. He coughed with satisfaction as he swirled the soup one last time.

"So, it's not much of a post, but at least I can fight! I know I can fight…" He muttered to himself as he stewed the tomatoes carefully. Wiping some slime from his nose, he proceded to chop some green stuff that he couldn't quite name.

"I can poison people….yep, yep….if they ate my food….if I put poison in it…but I can't, because it's for him…" He muttered to himself, his flimsy body sagging from the effort it took to think the problem through. At the very least, he had come to a decent conclusion, not the lousy ones that usually assailed him. He hacked through a few more bars of his song before he determined that his soup was ready for consumption. It was a pleasant light pink color, with little bits of green in it. He had no idea what half of these things he put in it were, but what the hay? Who cared in the end? With a cheerful little lift, he placed the concoction onto the server's tray, and walked out of the door. A good hack to get the mucus out of his system, and the door slid behind him, blocking him from view, which was unfortunate, because something was watching him. If he had seen the small little creature, he would have swashed it. But he didn't, allowing the small and the tiny to continuing spying on him…or at least, spying on something.

As Dirk passed by the many parts of the fortress, he was wonderfully absent minded and spaced out to everything going on around him. If he wasn't, he would have heard a conversation between Azien, and three interesting looking hollows. The three hollows were small, slim, and all black. It was if they had opted for a black mask over the tradition white one. There eyes were the only things that were of any color, each a stunning bright flame blue. They looked up at Azien with narrow eyes, staring intently at their new master.

"I need you to find me a certain hollow, and bring him to me alive. He is an elusive hollow, and has been able to evade all attempts of contact from any outside hollow. I'm entrusting you to find him, and using whatever method is necessary, take him to Las Noches, and to me." He paused for a moment, more for an effect rather than to collect thoughts. The collection of thoughts were for sissies. He had collected all of them before he was born. After what he thought was an appropriate time to say nothing, he told the three hollows information,

"The hollow's appearance is that of a white dragon, or so I'm told. He's large, or small, depending on the rare sighting. Answers to the name Lizardwing. Find him." He commanded, his eyes blazing slightly with a rare emotion. The hollows were not ignorant of this. This Lizardwing was important to Azien, and they would find him. With a bow of submission, they left, silent as the night, black as the night, and as fast as the night. As Azien watched them go, he couldn't help but think, would that be enough. His mind wandered back to that one hollow, and what it had said.

"Your power is nothing compared to Lizardwing's…" It had spit through gritted teeth as Azien crushed its head with his foot. Was it true? Was there a hollow more powerful than him? Why would he kill somthing if it had more information? Did he want another cup of tea? ...A hollow more powerful than him. It was an intresting concept. If it was true, he wanted to find it, not to kill it, but to have it join him. Join him in a conquest of freedom. All the while, a small little hollow watched, his eyes staring at the placed where the black hollows had left. Its eyes narrowed slightly, staring at the spot they disappeared to. And just like the midnight colored hollows, the little one disappeared to, into the stillness of Hueco Meundo.

Lizardwing was dreaming. It was an odd dream, with techno colors flashing through his head, and a giant honey bee flying around a town full of badly drawn bunnies that were laughing for help. Then a piece of badly drawn seaweed, that looked more like a bunch of grapes appeared, attacking the bee, changing it into a pink teddy bear.

"Lizardwing!" Lizardwing woke up with a start, staring around the disorienting swirling whiteness.

"Huh? Where did the bee go?" He groggily muttered. He looked around, then up, he finally looked down to the ground, spotting Giggles. She clutched his wing, her fingers as white as his bone colored wing.

"What's up Gig? I'm up!" He said, laughing at himself. He was still so sleepy, he couldn't sense Gig's tense body, or the charged atmosphere around him. He contiued to sleepiliy ramble about unimportant things while Giggles hid behind Lizardwing.

"I hate sandstorms," He said, settling down again, placing Giggles between his forepaws.

"They're always so darn long. If it wasn't for the fact that I have all the time in the world, I would send in a petition to fix them…I could change it myself if I had too…then again, that would be too much work. I don't like doing work. Bad for you health you see –"

"We're bad for your health as well." A sinister voice said, it's slick, smooth tone sliding ominously in the air. Lizardwing shot up, his back foot already grabbing a hold of Giggles, and drawing her closer to him. He let out a warning growl, his tongue sliding in and out, testing the air around him. The thing was to the left. With a spin, he caught the surprise attack to his left flank. Wrapping his tail around the creature, he flung it to the ground, crushing it with his forepaw. The other two hollow took advantage of his distraction, flying at him from the back and other unprotected right side. Or so they thought. Skillfully, Lizardwing threw his wing out, the edges of his feathers springing a metallic sharpened edge. It sliced the creature in half, and it disappeared into the whipped up sand. The other one had fastened itself onto his neck, and was proceeding to dig its teeth into his lower neck. Lizardwing head turned to face the last hollow, his flexible neck bending to its fullest capacity. With a roar, he snatched it up in his teeth, grinding the last hollow to nothing. Dropping the mutated body on the ground, he sniffed the air, testing to see if he could pick up any more beings in the sandstorm. Moving Giggles up to his shoulder with his tail, he raised his wings, ready to take off at the slightest sign of danger. Giggles clutched tightly to the large spikes on his back. His eyes darted back in forth, searching the sands for anything. He focused in on a small rock…there was something still there.

"Come out! If you value toast at all, you better come out!" He growled.

"And what if I don't value toast?" Came the coy reply. Lizardwing cocked his head, and thought about this.

"Is there anyone in this world that doesn't value toast?" He pondered out loud.

"Sure. What about the writer?" The voice said.

"The writer?"

"Yhea. The one writing this story. She doesn't like toast."

"No! Tell me this isn't so!" Lizardwing exclaimed. "This is tragic! Horrible! You mean that there is a person who has the audacity to not like toast!" He sat down in utter disbelief. Lizardwing could feel a prick of a tear at his eye. Giggles patted him on the back, giving him some moral support.

"It's all going to be fine. I like toast if that makes anything better." The voice said. Lizardwing could only manage to nod.

"But I prefer human souls to be honest…hollows are the next best thing, but I'm not big enough to hunt my kind yet…" The voice pondered.

"For myself, I like toothpicks – "

"Toothpicks?" The voice inquired.

"Yes, toothpicks. You know the trees that grow below the surface…"

"Oh yhea! I never thought to eat them…"

"Really? They are quite good on occasion. You put a little cinnamon on them and they're amazing!"

"I'll have to try it sometime." The voice was starting to sound bored from the exchange, and quite frankly, so was Lizardwing, along with Giggles.

"What do you want?" He asked, annoyed that he got so sidetracked about diets.

"I was wondering if you would be willing to consider a proposition?" Lizardwing cocked his head again, and then looked at Giggles. She was still clinging to his shoulder spike, her eyes just as bright blue as the now dead hollows.

"You trust him?" He asked the girl, her small hands clutching his ivory spike. She shook her head.

"You want to hear him out?" He inquired. She shook her head again, her eyes still wild with fear.

"Doesn't matter." Unsure of where, or what he was to addressing, he decided to talk to the rock. It felt the most sensiable.

"Let's hear your proposition." He declared. A cold chuckle filled the sand swirling void.

"Of course. But I don't like conversation where we can't discuss things face to face. Turn around. Let's talk."


	4. Mistakes

Lots of people make mistakes. Some make stupid ones. Like eating toast. Or eating toast with fish. How about the time that you tried to see if your tongue would stick to a pole in cold weather. This chapter for example is about mistakes. Stupid ones. Ones where the brilliant aren't even part of it. The chapter in itself is a mistake. So if you don't want to read about a lot of idiots trying to do impossible things, then don't read. Then again, if you want to read about idiots, then that means that you're probably brilliant, and want to understand the thinking of an idiot. That makes you an idiot. Sorry.

Dirk was at the place he was supposed to be, during the right time, with the right serving cart, with the wrong set of food. Awkward.

"What is this? This is not what I asked for." A seething, yet cold glare met Dirks averted eyes.

"Sorry Mr. Ggio Vega sir, I thought you said soup!" He protested, his frail little body shivering from fright and the chills.

"How do you get "you're hooped!" to "I want soup?" Do tell me, what is the resemblance?" He sneered. Dirk wanted to complain that there was a lot of resemblance, but it seemed that this wasn't the time to argue. Ggio's tiger like features stared him down, an evil grin lurking in between the fangs of his mask. Dirk shuddered.

"Well, I guess you'll have to make it up to me." Ggio said, his eyes staring directly at Dirk.

"Make it up!" Dirk said indignantly, "I didn't do anything!" Ggio raised one of his slender eyebrows, his girly face sinister. It was a rather creepy experience…

"Really?" He purred, "You interrupted me. I am part of the kings own fraccion, and I was interrupted by a lowly little hollow like you." He said. His disinterested voice didn't match the sneer in his eyes. Dirk raised his tiny fist in his tiny rage,

"You're just bored, and you wanted to do something!" Dirk cried out miserably, trying to make sense of this situation with the very little amount of brain he had.

"Maybe… But what are you going to do about it? What can you do about it?" Ggio twirled something absentmindedly his fingers, his eyes not leaving Dirk's face. Dirk hung his overly large head.

"Nothing." He murmured. In his head, he was beating himself up for the stupid mistake he made. Never listen to people who look have teeth sticking out of their head. It was good sound advice, even to people who don't live in the Bleach universe. Remember, anyone with teeth sticking out of their heads means that they can't be thinking straight, no matter what they tell you. The problem was that Dirk wasn't the type to listen to good advice, so instead of running in the opposite direction to get a c-scan for the guy; he did what Ggio threatened him to do.

"How can I be of a service to you?" He muttered. Ggio smiled slightly.

"That's what I wanted to hear…" He paused, twirling whatever it was in his fingers for a couple of seconds longer before he flicked it at Dirk. It hit him squarely in the gut, causing the frail little guy to wobbled a bit.

"I want you to take this, and implant it into Orihime's room."

"What's it for?" Dirk asked, picking up the small metal object. It was flat, and silver, looked a little like a palm tree.

"You don't have the brains to know what it's for. Just put it in the little princess's room. And if you're caught, you take what happened here to your grave. You understand?" His glare spoke more words then his threat ever could.

"You mean people will kill me if they find what out what will happen?" Dirk asked nervously, fiddling with the small little object. The only answer he got was the arrogant smirk from Ggio.

"I die either way don't I?" Dirk said sadly, almost to himself. At this point, Ggio absorbed himself into something else, not even caring to what Dirk said. He was a jerk like that. Dirk saw that it was pointless to say anything else about it. With a sigh, he took the serving cart, and pushed it out of the room, thinking of how he was going to do this.

Now mistakes have an odd ability to be accumulative. You make one, and it leads to others. Then it starts snowballing, and by the time your done, you caused an avalanche, destroyed a village, took out a moose, and it was all because you wanted to see what would happen if you through that rock down the side of the mountain. Well now you know! Don't do it again! Dirk's first mistake was not accepting the job, but thinking about the job. He should have known better than to think. He wasn't very bright. As he paced the kitchen, he mumbled to himself,

"Maybe if I hide it inside a snail, and let it crawl into the room…no one would suspect a snail!" He smiled at his genius. There were other ideas, like disguising it as a necklace and giving it to her, or placing it in Orihime's next meal…but those would have worked. He wiped his nose with his arm, and looked about him. How was he going to get a snail? He thought about it again…his second mistake. Snails live in shells, he thought to himself, and shells live in water…water lives in the ground, and in the ground there are trees….He should go to the Menos Forest! There were trees there!

"But there're made of rock…" He thought to himself. A perplexing problem indeed.

"A tree's a tree. I'm not going to judge." He assured himself. Besides, he didn't want to offend any of the trees. One of the things that he had learned in his life was this. If you respect a tree, it won't respect you. If you don't respect a tree, it still won't respect you. No matter what you do, you can't get the respect of a tree. But that didn't mean you can't keep on trying. With a smile, and a purpose, he set out to the forest of the Menos, in search of a snail.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Hueco Mundo, Lizardwing came face to face with the mysterious voice. Lizardwing spun around, searching for the person who would lead them to the answers of this mystery. But what he saw, wasn't what he was expecting…There, standing in front of him, or rather, squatting in front of him was a small neon blue fuzz ball. It was very unassuming, very unworthy of any mention, and seemed to have a nervous twitch in his antenna. Lizardwing was finding this rather distracting as the antenna jumped back and forth on its tiny fuzzy head. He was gaining the urge to swat it, and he wasn't entirely sure why. The creature's mask wasn't even visible through the gigantic poof of his fur.

"Are you supposed to be imitating a dust bunny?" Lizardwing asked, sitting on his haunches. The fuzz bristled a little but didn't say much. He twirled his antenna around a little, and hopped forward on its tiny little feet that poked out under the fur. Lizardwing sighed. He had been scared of this? Maybe he was pathetic…at least he wasn't as pathetic as the kid on his back. She was still shivering, whether with fear, or with cold, he wasn't too sure. The blue fuzz stared up at them, its tiny body yet massively poofy fur whipping in the wind. All commercial hair personal were scratching their eyes out knowing they were missing a chance to film great hair in action. Lizardwing glared at it for a second, and decided that it wasn't worth his and Giggles time.

"I find you pathetic. I find you disgusting. I find you a sad thing to look at. I don't think I want to talk to you. You're too cute. I'm leaving." With that said, Lizardwing turned, and walked into the now fading sandstorm. He would have flown off, but his joints hurt from the weather changes, and he didn't feel like exerting any energy. This worked in the fuzz's favor. Giggles watched with wide eyes as the creature bounded up onto a tree, then leaped onto Lizardwing's head. How was it possible for something so tiny to jump so high in the air she asked herself in amazement…The creature glared at Giggles, making her shrink back behind the spike. Personally, he was feeling rather insulted that he was considered a sad looking hollow. He wasn't sad, this overly large dragon was. He proceeded to tell Lizardwing this…

"I find you a sad person to look at myself, yet I still want to talk to you. Don't you think you should give me the same courtesy?" He asked, his voice hissing slightly.

"No. Go away, or stay on my head, I don't care. I don't want to talk to you." Lizardwing tromped off in the nearest direction of where he originally wanted to go. Where that could have been, he wasn't completely sure, but he was almost certain that this was the right direction. Maybe it wasn't.

"Am I supposed to turn around here, or go straight at that tree?" He asked nobody in particular.

"Which tree? There are around nine thousand, two hundred and fifty five." The fuzz said. Lizardwing peered around him, considering this.

"I think it's the tree that looks like a tree." He half mumbled to himself. Both Giggles and the fuzz sighed.

"Aren't you even interested in what just happened there?" The fuzz bemoaned. Lizardwing continued to peer out into nowhere. Frustrated beyond belief, the fuzz stomped up to one of Lizardwing's eyes. Waving a small little twitching antenna in his eye, he started shouting.

"Aren't you the least bit interested in anything that just happened? You got attacked by strange hollows, and then you met a strange looking person, and you got a strange kid on you back and…." The fuzz plopped down on Lizardwing's eyebrow. He gave another futile sigh. It was becoming obvious that Lizardwing simply did not care. There was no more threat; therefore, he could ignore what he wanted. It was if he wasn't even there.

"The king is looking for you." The fuzz finally said, realizing that beating around the bush was not helping him. Beating around the bush doesn't help anyone, but the bush, because I don't think the bush wanted to be beaten in the first place. Lizardwing's head snapped up, his eyes wide with surprise.

"A king? You mean _the_ king?" Lizardwing asked, his voice drawled out with amazement and annoyance. It had been years since he had to go anywhere near the king of Hueco Mundo, and it wasn't a happy experience. Then a thought occurred to him,

"Wait…which king? I've lived through several…you wouldn't mean the small spidery king right? With the green lantern thing he obsessed over all time…I really hated that guy. Or the one with the cat? And the other guy…or was it a girl…that put mirrors everywhere, and made you look at your reflection everywhere you went!" Lizardwing ranted. The fuzz just stared at him, amazement emanating from him. How many kings had this hollow lived through?

"It's Aizen -"

"And you know what! She was going to put those same mirrors all over Hueco Mundo too! It wasn't just her small little palace, but everywhere! I was so glad when the other guy took over; he just had a thing for dungeons and dark places. I think he liked ducks to… That didn't affect me too much…wait…Aizen? Who's Aizen?" The creature sighed, and looked at the small child on his back. She seemed just as tired as he felt. At least she could sleep. It seemed that she was going to do that. He wished that he could do the same.

"Lord Aizen has taken Los Noches, and is the new king of Hueco Mundo. How is it that you don't know any of this?" He accused. Lizardwing shrugged, waking Giggles up from her small nap with a jolt.

"I don't keep up with current events. I prefer to stay by myself, and live a relativity peaceful life on the outskirts. No hollow lives there, because no one is stupid enough to do so. It's a little bit of an interesting land…the outskirts. But I come in every couple thousand years to the forest of the Menos to eat some food. It's a good life, bit boring but good." He said, meandering farther away from the center of Hueco Mundo.

"No wonder you're so hard to find. You're just stupidly elusive." The fuzz grumbled. Lizardwing didn't comment. Why comment when people say the truth. It's the truth, let it be, thought Lizardwing. The fuzz wasn't going to let this conversation go though. He still seemed like he had something to say.

"You should have kept up. You should have known! Do you know that you are being searched for? Aizen wants to see you. Now." The creature growled and exclaimed.

"The last time that I was going to see a king, he tried to enlist me into his army by using a really big stick…it didn't work so well…I ate the stick. It tasted pretty good!" Lizardwing hummed happily.

"You don't seem to understand the situation here!" The fuzz bellowed. It was impressive for something so tiny to bellow so loud.

"What you need to understand is that Aizen is more powerful than even you are! You are nothing compared to him! And he's looking for you! Don't you understand what that means?"

"No. What?" If the creature could have smacked his head, he would have.

"It means that in till you walk into Aizen's hands, you will be hunted down like a dog."

"I'm a dragon not a dog." Lizardwing grumbled. The fuzz let out a shriek of frustration. Was there any way to convince this guy to go!

"Aizen drinks tea. A lot of it." A small high voice said. The fuzz spun around, looking at the girl. She smiled shyly, and stared past him, to Lizardwing. For some reason unknown to the fuzz, he was staring very hard at his little blue body, looking right into his hidden eyes. He couldn't help but feel a little nervous at the turn of advents. For the first time, Lizardwing seemed interested. For the first time, he seemed scary. The fuzz gulped.

"Is this true?" Lizardwing said his voice low.

"Yessss?" The fuzz said, unsure as to what to say.

"Let's go. Which way?" He commanded the fuzz. Completely bewildered, the fuzz directed them to turn around, his mind trying to understand what had changed Lizardwing's mind so quickly, and how the girl knew something that seemed impossible. Whatever it was, he was glad of the change, and didn't bother to complain.

If it hadn't been for Dirk, many things wouldn't have happened. Gig would have died, Lizardwing would have been enlisted into Aizen's army, the soul society would have been blown up, and many people would have been relived from a show called Bleach. It would have finally ended. It would have been a happy time for the whole world. A period of rejoicing, along with lingering regrets, like _why did I waste 355 episodes (and still counting) of my life? _Or _why is it that Kenpachi never gets a bankai? _Or _it's too bad that I didn't find out if Ichigo ever gets married…does it even matter? Is it possible for Ichigo to die?_ Yes, there would have been those times, and it would have been sad, but it would have been for the best. The grieving period would have ended, and we all would realize, the Soul Society is better off dead. But that isn't the case. That's why; this whole chapter is a mistake. It's the reason why Bleach still exists today. I apologize for any inconvenience.


	5. Fuzz and Stuff

In the soul society, there are many odd obscurities that occur. Random bits of time get swapped with other bits of time, things get misplaced, and where you thought you had put your chair really had been sent into a vortex at that exact moment you decided to sit down. At least that's what your friend told you. So when the odd and unseemly happens, it doesn't seem odd or the least bit unseemly. In fact, it seems normal. So when a rubber duck appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the Menos forest, no one thought twice about it. No one saw the sinister nature of this piece of unsuspecting rubber, no one thought to apprehend it before it was too late. Little to everyone's knowledge, this rubber duck…was a killer.

Dirk was pressed for time, and he was in a pickle. Literally in a pickle. It was the only way he could sneak out without being detected. And who would detect a pickle? Seaweed on the other hand was a completely different story. He had tried that, and the results were messy... The only problem was that with the pickle was that it was small, and trying to get him to fit inside it was a difficult thing. In the end his head was still sticking out, along with his lanky arms. The other hollows pretended they didn't notice him. No one wanted to be seen with something so stupid looking, so I guess in a way, it worked. No one stopped him when he passed the gate, and no one said anything when he sneaked over the sands. He felt sneaky, in his pickle costume, his spoon in his hand, and his tipy-toe feet. He felt proud, in till he realized…

"Oh dear…how many times have I passed that rock?"

Azien shifted in his seat. Thought back to his plan. Was there any meetings that he needed to attend to? Humm…he already talked to Orihime about the Hogyoku... He yawned. Maybe he needed a nap... He ran through his plan in his head again, organizing it again. Counting his list and checking it twice. There was a sense of anticipation that he allowed himself to feel. It curled in his stomach, like a warm cat curled in your lap. He didn't like cats. Maybe some tea would make the feeling go away he thought to himself. Gracefully he stood up, and strode out of the room. He passed white hallways, and white doors that led to white rooms. Azien remembered Stark thinking about painting one of the room's blue, just for a change in color. With a slight smile, he remembered the answer to such a ridiculous question. The only color worth being in his sight was white. White and pure. Anything else was idiotic. He entered a small chamber, with only a small bed, desk and a midnight black rug. Azien looked at the rug for a long moment, looking at it closely. It was torn, bits of it ripped off, revealing the white floor. He stooped down to tear a little more off of the black fabric.

"Soon…" He murmured to himself, as he fiddled with the peice of fabric in his fingers. Soon anything black in his eyes will be vanquished, and he would be at the top of the world.

The problem with thinking that you will be at the top of the world is that there is already something there. Something big, and terrifying, and rather unpleasant. Something that you could never reach. Sadly it takes Azien around a couple hundred episodes to realize this. Too bad.

As Azien traced his slender fingers over the japaness desk, he thought back to the very start of his plan.

"Such fun…" He said quietly, letting his words echo around him, as if he was waiting for an answer. Silence was the only thing that bothered with a reply. With a sigh, he lay down on the bed, and went to sleep. There are some things too complex to be put in words. It was only the silence and the dark realm of sleep that could describe what Azien thought.

Ichigo was angry. He was in pain. He was an idiot. He was fighting someone that was almost in the exact same emotional state. The only difference between the two of them was that Ichigo fighting skills were a joke, and the other was a comedy. Meaning the difference in between them was marginal but it was there. The point is that Ichigo was losing. This explained the gigantic holes all over the place. Craters filled every area of the room, each one a place where Ichigo had smashed into it with his body, or he made them with his overly large and ridiculous sword. The building was not happy with this. It tried to cause Ichigo some pain of its own, hoping that it could tell the impudent boy that smashing yourself into my hard stone walls is not good for either of us. He didn't listen. Then again, Ichigo was never the type to listen to logic. Just smash stuff and you'll hit something eventually was a much better philosophy in his opinion. The building could feel its supports buckling around it, the cracks reaching farther down, deep into the foundation. As the building realized this with a panic and alarm, it also realized that there were four other obnoxious people crashing, and smashing its walls. With a horrified silence only a building can have, it felt crack after crack reach down to the bottom of its foundation. In absolute frustration, it tried to shift slightly, to throw everyone off balance. It didn't work. In fact, it made things worse. With a groan, it gave up, and prayed to it's contractors that whoever it was up there would stop soon. To bad they didn't. Thus proving the buildings are to trusting with people.

As Lizardwing was heading towards Aizen's palace, he got hungry. Again. He could smell the trees down in the forest from under the sand, and he knew that the entrance to the area was close.

"Just a quick nip off the ol' tree, and we'll be off." Lizardwing said, his former intensity subsided to a lazy simmer. Besides, the more he thought about it, the less he wanted to go to some palace just to talk to some dude…then again, the benefits could be incredible…if he wasn't lazy enough to bother.

"So…is it true that he drinks tea?" Lizardwing asked, his trot giving way to a lazy plod. The fuzz sighed. He didn't understand what was so important about the tea, but if that's what kept him going...

"Yes. Now turn left here." He commanded. Lizardwing turned right.

"I said left! Left you stupid lizard! Can't you hear me?" He bellowed.

"How much tea? Like, a cart load of tea?" Lizardwing asked, ignoring the steaming little creature on his back. Steaming, like a cup of tea. Yum.

"What does it matter? You need to get there to find out anyway… And to get there you need to go left!" The little guy screamed.

"Well, it does matter. Quite a bit actually. Because I need to know how much I'll be able to take before anyone catches me." Lizardwing said matter of factly. If the fuzz's jaw could have dropped, it would have.

"The only reason you're going is to _steal his tea_?" He cried out.

"Of course. What other reason would there be?" Lizardwing protested. The fuzz didn't say anything, just let his proverbial jaw drop. Lizardwing could sense a lack of response, and started to get self-conscious.

"Well, it gets boring, eating the same thing day in and day out. I just want something nice and warm for once. Anything hot would be good. Tea would be amazing! Plus, Giggles hasn't had any food for a while now, so it would be good to feed her before I return her to the real world… You know what I mean….right?" Lizardwing stopped, and shifted his wings awkwardly. He had to admit that the impending silence was a little awkward, and no matter how hard he thought, he couldn't find a solution to break the ice that started forming between him and the fuzz.

"Just turn left." Came a cold reply. Lizardwing could feel the chill creeping into the air. He needed an ice pick…then again, did he really care? No, he thought to himself. What I care about is food. He decided that this fuzzy guy needed to know this.

"I'm still hungry. We go left for now. We'll get back here eventually." Lizardwing said offhandedly. He started trotting again, picking it up to something more brisk. Lizardwing couldn't help but feel the murderous glares directed at him, but he ignored them for the most part. Suddenly, he stopped. Cocked his head. Peered into the darkness.

"What is it now you lazy lizard! Where are you looking at?" The fuzz bellowed.

"Oh poop…" Lizardwing said under his breath. With a sudden burst of speed, he shifted into the size of a large horse, his speed increasing in every long panicked stride.

"What's the matter? What's going on?" The fuzz cried out. Giggles, now awake clutched his spike with confusion deep in her eyes. For a second, understanding flashed across her bright blue irises.

"A big monster…" Giggles whispered.

"Yes Gig…A big monster. One that wants me. I don't want to meet it. You understand right?" Lizardwing panted. Gig nodded. The fuzz tried to understand the exchange between them, and coming to no conclusion, plopped down, and tried to hold on for his dear life. Lizardwing was now going faster than what the fuzz could, the speed making his head hurt, and the world turn into a blur. Tears started streaming from his eyes, by just the sheer amount of pressure that was being placed on him. He tried to increase his sprit power around him to create a shield, but even then it was an oppressive feeling. He felt a shudder run through Lizardwing's body, and a tremor from the earth. To his amazement, the earth opened up in front of them, its wide expanse yawning like a giant whale. The fuzz had no intention of becoming the next Jonah, and he tried to jump off in fear, but before he could, two small hands grabbed him, and clutched him close to its body. For some reason the pressure wasn't as bad, in fact, it was barely noticeable when he came close to this personal. The world around them seemed to make more sense as it slowed down, down to a speed he could understand. As it slowed down, he realized two things. One was that he was in the forest. The other was that the two hands belonged to Giggles.

"There, your safe now. You're ok." She said, stoking his head. It wasn't in till this point that he realized he had been screaming a very girl like scream. How embarrassing. He stopped immediately.

"That wasn't me…" He said, his voice still shaky, much to his annoyance. Giggles smiled at him, and placed him back on Lizardwing's back. Lizardwing had grown even smaller, now that size of a large wolf. He twisted his head around, looking for what he was running from. His eyes were still panicked; his body still tense, wings spread out, and his legs crouched.

"What are you so afraid of?" The fuzz whispered.

"Shut up. Don't talk when I'm searching." Lizardwing snapped. He looked around again, searching for the sent. Was it still there? He was sure that he smelt Baraggan, the king…Was it just him? He remembered he was one of the kings that summoned him. Of course, Lizardwing never did appear, and he certainly didn't want to be found now. That would be too awkward, plus, he would try to kill Giggles... Now that Lizardwing thought about it, Baraggan should be dead if a new king was on the throne. What was he doing alive? A growl escaped his throat as he continued to search throughout the forest. Another new sent assailed him. It was mixed along with several others. He didn't like this. The sent of the old king along with all these new ones. What did all of this mean? Along with this new king…something was very wrong with Hueco Mundo. Putting his nose to the ground, he began to track the new scents. They were leading in the direction of Baraggan's fortress. At least he assumed that was what it was. This was his first time seeing it. His eyes opened wider, and he used his second sight to see the forest. New shapes, all made out of shining silver assailed him, each of them a thumbprint of sprit pressure that wavered in front of him. Several of them belonged to hollows watching them, but there were five that didn't belong to any hollow, and two that belonged to a something even odder than the others. It was like a hollow, but it had human mixed into it. An odd blend, that came along with an odd scent. He followed it like a ghost, completely forgetting the reason he had come here in the first place. The fuzz sighed and turned to Giggles.

"Is he always like this? Just does what he wants when he wants?" He complained. Giggles shrugged.

"Don't know. I've been around him for a day. I've been here…" She gestured around her, "…For a day and a half. I'm still confused, and he not help…" She said, pointing at Lizardwing. The fuzz had to agree that it was an excellent illustration of not helpful. In fact, that white dragon was far from helpful. He was what the fuzz liked to call it, a rock. He did nothing, liked nothing, ate nothing of importance, and seemed to have the strength of a rock. He hated this hollow with a passion, and he had only been traveling with him for an hour.

"Shut up, I'm tracking." Lizardwing snapped.

"And does this tracking have anything to do with Azien, and completing his summons? 'Or how about getting the food that you said you wanted? Maybe it has to do with being helpful! Or taking this girl home, which seems to be one of your priorities. Or do you have those? Are they just foreign things to you, like thought processes? Do you have any idea where you're going, or what you're tracking, and how that's going to help us right now?" The fuzz screeched.

"I do the things that I want to do. I want to track…I'll get to the other stuff later. Now shut up." Lizardwing continued to ghost along the ground, his wings half spread, and his body low against the rock. The fuzz sighed, waddled over to Giggles and plopped in her lap.

"I'm going to bed." He grumbled. Giggles nodded, and watched as the small blue thing eyes disappeared beneath the mask. She watched the world rush past her, and wondered, about many things. So many things that I'm too lazy to list them all off. All you need to know is that she was confused, but not scared. At least, not currently.

Dirk was wondering around, retracing his steps, and passing the same lump of stone for the past hour and a half. He had traveled all the way out of Las Noches, and he could seem to find a trace of an opening. He knew it was somewhere around here though. He consulted his spoon for help.

"So, I know that I'm meant to go west. We are west…according to your shadow, so that must mean that it's….right here!" He exclaimed, pointing at the same piece of sand that he did two seconds ago. He stared at the spot, a half smile covering his feverish face. He hacked up some flem, and proceeded to go to that spot in the dirt. And he would have to, if he hadn't of fallen down the quicksand that was surrounded the area. Too bad. It would have made this story so much sorter if he hadn't of done that.

He ended up at a small hole at the other end of the plain. Completely bewildered, and amazed that he had actually found the place that he needed to be, he kissed his spoon. And then wiped his nose. With a grin, he picked himself up, and walked forward, only to bump into something in that dark passageway. It was a rock. A big rock. There were other rocks, all over the place, all of them very intent on not letting anyone pass through the passage way. Dirk stared up at the wall of rocks, his tiny fist clenching in tiny rage.

"What!" He cried out, slumping against the wall.

"How am I suppose to get there now? There's no way I'll be able to find a snail." He moaned. He coughed a couple times in distress, and not sure what to do anymore, did a very dangerous thing. He thought of a plan. And for once, while it was stupid, it worked. He called for help. The wall exploded.


	6. Adoxography and Yhpargoxoda

There are a group of people that believe that explosions can cause life, which is ironic seeing as more people die by them then get created. The only creature that has the audacity to be created in an explosion is a tiny atom called an adoxography. These beings roam the earth in search of a writer they can implant themselves in. Their main purpose is to make the writer write useless things, taking time to perfect a skill long lost. One of these beings happened upon a story named Bleach. It felt like it needed to explain some things that never needed explaining in the first place. Like why Ichigo is named after a strawberry. Or the reasons why he can fight so well at the start, but is a joke of a fighter later on. This writer also tried to explain why the whole military of the soul society started to depend completely on the help of a sixteen year old boy who has never picked up a sword in his life. But as they tried to explain these things, the poor atom's head exploded, and it ended up turning the writer insane. She ended up writing something about pears instead. The fascinating thing about this is that this atom has a lesser known "brother" of sorts. It is the yhpargozoda atom. It makes a person with little skill write about very important things. The sad fact about this atom is the explosive effect when it is unable to accomplish this. It results in a very bloody death, which no one would appreciate to watch. At least, no one with a right mind set. And the ones with wrong ones, well, they can get new sets at the store called Pinky and the Brian. The current owner of this store is named Clyde, and he supplies' an unusual amount of rubber duckies.

Another interesting fact about the adoxography and yhpargoxoda atoms is that they are highly attracted to rubber duckies. Scientist have been trying to figure it out, but there have been no conclusive results.

Dirk stared in surprise. The group of creatures stared right back at him. He stared harder. They looked at him closer. A rock fell, echoing in a deaf silence.

"Ermmm…sorry. I didn't mean to make this, explode…I umm…" Lizardwing fumbled around; trying to catch the words he was supposed to say to this miserable looking thing hiding behind a rock. It was in a pickle suite, which made very little sense to him. In all honesty, it made things all the more awkward.

"So…umm, I guess I'll get going." Lizardwing mumbled lamely. He tried to shuffle around him in the small space the cave gave him.

"Wait!" Dirk cried out. Lizardwing paused in mid stride. He turned, expecting insults, or something profound.

"Do you know where the snails are?"

Ichigo held his sword, poised for battle. Nnoitra looked at him, his eyes glinting like cold hardened steel. His smile reached up, and griped his face in its iron lock. Ichigo hazel eyes narrowed, staring into the flat malicious eyes, challenging him to the first move. But waiting for it took patience, something Ichigo didn't have, so he charged, his only care stuck in a tower, with a rather depressing character.

Orihime stood by herself, fear coursing through her veins. She could feel it. She could feel all her friends dying, fighting, for her. She half choked a sob, before the afore mentioned depressing character entered the room.

"I can feel your fear for them. They should be nothing to you. Who do you belong to Orihime Inoue?" His dark drawl made the room go dark. The chairs seemed to sink in depression, and the rug trudged over to mope in the corner. Ulquiorra stared grimly at his surroundings, expecting the custom reply. He had tried to brainwash her, and with an amount of satisfactory displeasure, he saw that he could succeed if he kept up this line of thought with her. He looked at her dead eyes and half trembling lip as she murmured the words,

"Aziens…" The rug started to weep. Because Ulquiorra couldn't bring himself to say something positive about anything, he could say anything as positive as a yes, so instead of agreeing with her, he simply said nothing. He turned, satisfied with what he had heard. With a click, the door swung closed behind him. He wondered idly what he should be feeling from this small victory. To be honest, he wasn't that sure when it came to emotions. The last time he felt one of those was when he saw a duck for the first time as a hollow. He loved those things. He had requested secretly to King Baraggan to find him one, using the threat that he would kill him using his second resurrection. Even the King knew when he was bested at strength. He could remember it well, because it had happened recently.

It had happened twelve days ago. King Baraggan had come, his eyes ablaze. Something had happened in the court that made him unhappy. Lately it had been a lot of things. Ulquiorra had been under his army for the longest time, and he knew the King's moods. Every time Aizen over ruled him, the King went into his private rages. And it was him that he took his anger out on. Most of the time, Ulquiorra didn't do much, because he didn't see the point in it. But this time, he was going to take it out on the girl. He wasn't going to allow that. That was a direct offence against Aizen, and that was one of the few things that made him angry. Not that Aizen would be angry, but his master plan could be upset. Ulquiorra would protect that plan with his life. The girl was part of it, so that meant he would protect the woman with his life.

"Let me have her! Now!" The king screamed, blind with rage. Ulquiorra grabbed his arms, pinning him to the wall.

"How dare you!" The king screeched. Ulquiorra eyes narrowed as he pushed him through the wall, and into the next empty room. They grappled for a moment, trying to gain the upper hand. Ulquiorra did, and flung him through the ceiling. There went the repairs from yesterday. Good thing they didn't run out of hollows to fix these small meager things. The ceiling reached up to the very top of the castle, and without saying a word, he flung his surprised king up, and through the "sky" of the castle.

"What are you doing?" The king screeched his hands already on his axe. With a graceful sweep, Ulquiorra unsheathed his sword.

"Don't you touch the girl." He growled. The king looked a little nervous all of a sudden, but he covered it up with his anger.

"What! Do you have feelings for her? That's ridiculous, you don't have feelings!" The king bellowed. Ulquiorra didn't take the bait, but released his sword. Besides, how could he take the bait when it was true. The king's axe was shaking, with anger or fear, Ulquiorra was about to find out.

"Do you think you can challenge me? I'm your king! Not Aizen! He's a human, a mere human. He does not posses the strength I do! I'm a god, he's a mortal! If we kill that girl, we kill his plans. We'll kill him. I'll have my power again!" The king's scream echoed around them. They now had the attention of some of the hollows in the upper grounds. It didn't matter. They would die soon.

"Only Aizen-sama." Was Ulquiorra's final words before he launched himself into his attack. He was done with this. No more of these pointless fights between the two of them. No more talk of power. He would show him that once and for all that he was the strongest. He would show that for once and all, the King was nothing more than a title. It was him that would hold the power over the king, not the other way around. And it was Aizen that had a hold on himself. Aizen was the true king, and it was him, Ulquiorra that held the power to serve him. The king let go of one of his lethal blasts of eroding power, which he neatly dodged. With yet another sweep, he was in the killing range, but the king was too slow to realize it. Ulquiorra slashed a slice into his face, cutting the left side all the way down to his chin. The king gritted his teeth, and whirled his axe around to face the now receding Ulquiorra.

"Bastered." Baraggan spit out. Ulquiorra allowed himself a pause, considering releasing his second state. While it was true that he got a shot in, with the king now angry, he was stronger with his anger. It made him think clearer in a way. To overpass him, without sustaining too many injury's, he had to fight him in his second phase. So, while the king tried to gather more power around his axe, Ulquiorra calmed himself, down to the point where he felt like he was dead.

"Segunda Etapa." Was the quiet mummer, but it had a powerful blast, and his power shot out around him, killing some of the observing hollows, as well as repelling the incoming attack from Baraggan. The king stared at him in horrid awe.

"What…is …that?" He mouthed. Ulquiorra charged before the words left his mouth.

"A gift." He murmured, his claws caressing Baraggan's neck, the sharpened edges giving leaving a deep bloody line across his throat. Baraggan's reflex reaction caught him off guard, his large axe finding a place in his right wing, completely severing it. Ulquiorra gasped in pain, his eyes widened.

"While that's impressive, it's not going to kill me." Baraggan growled. Ulquiorra eyes narrowed, and he focused on regenerating himself, taking two flash steps back, arms ready to protect. Another blast from the king's axe sent Ulquiorra flying farther away to avoid it. Using his new wings to generate speed, he rushed to the king's unprotected left side, ready to plunge a hand into his ribs. His missed by a hairs breath, and was forced to return to the safety of the sky.

"Is that all you've got?" The King taunted. With apt attention and focus on the fight, Ulquiorra concentrated his power into a cero, directing it at the king. Baraggan created one of his own, planning to cancel it Ulquiorra's power out with his own. But to his immense surprise, it didn't work. Ulquiorra's cero enveloped the Baraggan's, and enveloped the king in its green light. Ulquiorra could hear the distant scream before everything went still, and quiet. No hollow has ever witnessed this, and any one that did, was now dead. He landed gently onto the ground, looking at the smoking remains of the king. With a grim determination, he picked them up, after sheathing his sword. He walked down quiet hallways, and deserted corridors, before he came to Orihimes room. He placed the heap onto the floor, his eyes never leaving the girls wide frightened blue ones.

"Heal it." He commanded. The girl looked at him for a moment, like he was nuts. He might have been. But he had proved his point, and what is the point of proving a point, if the person you wanted to prove the point to was dead. Orihime didn't say anything as she went over to him. She started working on him, till the point she was almost falling over. In all the time, he studied her, trying to understand a little more about her. Out of all the things he had seen in his hollow life, she was one of the most interesting…aside from the duck…

The next thing that the king knew, he was awake, with that man standing over him, his precious girl hiding behind him. He wanted to shout, but he couldn't. He realized he no longer had a mouth. This was a bit of a frustration to him.

"If you want to talk again, as well as make sure I don't talk about what happened on the roof, you will promise me two things." Ulquiorra stated. All Baraggan could do was glare. That didn't get him the effect he wanted.

"You will never try to harm the plan Aizen has provided for us." Ulquiorra's eyes narrowed,

"And you will provide me with this." He handed the king a piece of paper.

"Don't open it in till later. Failure to do this will result in your mouth never to be seen again, and you will never be able to protest what humiliation you severed at my hands." With that, he grabbed the kings arms, dragged to his feet, and pushed him out the door ahead of him.

"You may look at it now." With that said, he strode down the hallway, his gloomy air following him like a thick unwanted cloud. With annoyance, and hatred, along with a bit of curiosity, the king opened the paper. If he could have laughed, he would have. He went to the research lab, amusement and anger in his eyes.

"I can do that, but there are a few things that need to happen. First I need to calculate the adoxography and yhpargoxoda atoms in the air, and use that to make a portal." Szayel Aporo Granz said, as he observed the drawing.

"What did happe – " Szayel said before he was cut off by a glare from the king. With a sigh, he went about calculating how to get this thing into Baraggan's hands. The things he will do for information.

"There." He said, pointing at the screen.

"Do you want me to – " And the king was gone, already going to get the item.

That had happened a couple days ago, and although he had restored the kings speech, he still hadn't procured the item he had asked for. Ulquiorra ground his teeth, feeling something along the lines of annoyance. At least, he knew that's what he should be feeling. He stomped down the hallways, and realized he had forgotten his tea at Orihimes room. Turning around, he stomped back, so he could enjoy his cup of tea, with an interesting experiment to observe while he did.

It was around this point that Lizardwing and Dirk were on the search for snails. It was official. They both had one track minds. What was being debated on between Giggles and the fuzz was weather they had minds to begin with. They had tried reasoning, logic, a sense of self, and the primary uses of the letter m, and still they had not convinced the two of them that snails could not be found in the menos forest.

"I'm sure that they could live here. This would be a great habitat for them don't you think!" Dirk exclaimed. Giggles sighed, and knocked her head against one of the large spikes on Lizardwing's back.

"And if we find one, then we'll be able to give the princess this!" Dirk said, holding his palm tree device thing that he was given.

"Why on earth do you want to give the princess that?...wait…we have a princess?" Lizardwing asked. It was the fuzz's turn to smack his head into a spike.

"I've been trying to tell you this stuff before hand!" The fuzz practically screeched.

"No you haven't. You've been telling me about Aizen, not about the princess. What's she like! Is she pretty?" He asked Dirk, a grin on his face.

"She's weird. She's human."

"Human! That can't be right." Lizardwing muttered.

"Aizen is human too you know."

"What! Did I already know this?" He asked Giggles. She nodded.

"Oh…that's embarrassing…." The fuzz growled something under his breath. This was getting to be too much. His frustration grew, to the point of a blind rage. He started to grow, in a particular way.

"…and you know that tea with toast is a delicacy in some places."

"Uhhh…guys…" Giggles said nervously in the back. She watched as the fuzz's murderous eyes turned on her. A grin spread across its face.

"Guys…"Her voice wavered a bit.

"…I ate a computer once. It didn't taste good…."At this point, Giggles started scrambling to the back of Lizardwing, her small hands trembling.

"…why does my back feel so heavy?" Lizardwing commented, almost a side comment. With a casual turn, he looked to see the fuzz, but only, he wasn't fuzzy. He was huge, with long scaly arms, and claw like feet. He was nothing compared to Lizardwing, but with Giggles squeezed in his hands, he became a slight threat.

"Let her go." Lizardwing growled quietly. The fuzz's grip tightened, making Giggles gasp.

"You are coming with me. Now. I will destroy her if you don't." The threat hung in the air, thick, like the tension.

"What make's you think that he cares about the girl anyway!" Dirk protested.

"Not smart…" Lizardwing murmured out of the side of his mouth.

"Well, let's test how much he cares. I've wanted to eat her any way; I think she looks like she'll taste good. Let's see, shall we?" He lifted Giggles up, opening his now gruesome mouth. Giggles whimpered.

"Stop!" Lizardwing cried out. He lunged for her, his tail knocking against Dirk. Dirk went flying hitting a particular branch. Because of the gigantic cracks in the foundation at the fortress, it made the trees unstable, making the more liable to crack and break. With a crack, the branch fell, and hit the fuzz on the head. Then his face exploded. This was followed by complete silence.

"…interesting…hit him with a branch…and he explodes…I didn't know we could do that!" Dirk said, a grin on his face. Giggles looked at the mess around her, surprise and relief coloring her face.

"It wasn't the branch…" Lizardwing said as he stooped down to observe the mess.

"What do you make of this?" Giggles said, holding up a rather messy looking rubber duck.

"I don't know…There are many odd things in this wood. That is one of them…" Lizardwing said ominously.

"Hey look! I found a snail!"

I find it fascinating how things work out in the end. For better or for worse, it's up to you.


End file.
